diff --git a/src/main/java/com/samskivert/mustache/Mustache.java b/src/main/java/com/samskivert/mustache/Mustache.java
index a6c3aac..6ebec9d 100644
--- a/src/main/java/com/samskivert/mustache/Mustache.java
+++ b/src/main/java/com/samskivert/mustache/Mustache.java
@@ -57,11 +57,11 @@ public class Mustache
     }
 
     /**
-     * Returns a compiler that <em>does not</em> escape HTML by default.
+     * Returns a compiler that escapes HTML by default.
      */
     public static Compiler compiler ()
     {
-        return new Compiler(false);
+        return new Compiler(true);
     }
 
     /**
diff --git a/src/test/java/com/samskivert/mustache/MustacheTest.java b/src/test/java/com/samskivert/mustache/MustacheTest.java
index b83c3d7..2183052 100644
--- a/src/test/java/com/samskivert/mustache/MustacheTest.java
+++ b/src/test/java/com/samskivert/mustache/MustacheTest.java
@@ -114,9 +114,10 @@ public class MustacheTest
     }
 
     @Test public void testEscapeHTML () {
-        assertEquals("<b>", Mustache.compiler().compile("{{a}}").execute(context("a", "<b>")));
-        assertEquals("&lt;b&gt;", Mustache.compiler().escapeHTML(true).
-                     compile("{{a}}").execute(context("a", "<b>")));
+        assertEquals("&lt;b&gt;", Mustache.compiler().compile("{{a}}").
+                     execute(context("a", "<b>")));
+        assertEquals("<b>", Mustache.compiler().escapeHTML(false).compile("{{a}}").
+                     execute(context("a", "<b>")));
     }
 
     protected void test (String expected, String template, Object ctx)